The field of the invention is fruit juice extractors.
In processing fruit, especially citrus fruit, to make fruit juices and other fruit products, the fruit pulp must ordinarily be accessed through the fruit peel or rind. Typically, this is achieved by slicing the fruit in half and then reaming, or by crushing the fruit pulp within the peel. However, the fruit peel generally contains bitter oils and other peel components which are undesirable in fruit juices or other fruit products. Accordingly, it is advantageous to avoid liberating peel oils and components during processing.
Deformation of, or excessive pressure applied to the peel increases the chances of liberating these undesirable peel components into the juice. These components can be released from the inside of the peel (albedo), as well as from the outside (flavedo). Some existing juice extractors can impart excessive pressures and high impact forces on the fruit peel. This has become a more significant problem in recent years as a result of the high operating speeds required by modern juice plants.
As harvested from orchards or farms, even a single load of fruit has a random assortment of fruit size, ripeness, peel condition, and other characteristics. This lack of uniformity can create difficulties in processing (e.g., handling, slicing, reaming, crushing, etc.) the fruit since the fruit processing machinery generally cannot be optimally matched for each random size or other fruit characteristic.
In many known fruit processing machines, the fruit is temporarily held in position by chutes, holders, cups, etc., for each particular operation. The fruit is then released and transferred to the next operation where the fruit is again secured or held in position by cups, cup fingers, etc., for further processing. The potential for improper handling of fruit generally increases with an increased number of holding and releasing steps.
With citrus fruit, the highest quality juice and the juice having the highest sugar ratio, is found in the fruit pulp closest to the peel. Hence, it is, of course, desirable to extract this highest quality juice from the fruit. On the other hand, this highest quality juice is difficult to extract from the fruit without liberating the above mentioned undesirable peel components, since the best juice and peel are adjacent to each other within the fruit.
Various fruit halving or cutting knives and methods have been known and used in the past with varying degrees of success. However, these known techniques can often liberate peel oils and other peel components which can be carried into the juice portion of the fruit.